Brannon Braga to run pre-historic Fox drama Terra Nova; Project headed to series and Kyle Chandler eyed for lead role

Brannon Braga has joined the Steven Spielberg / Peter Cherning pre-historic drama Terra Nova at Fox. Braga, who has worked on three “Star Trek” series and most recently was an executive producer on “24” and co-created the ABC drama “FlashForward”, will board as an executive producer / showrunner.

Deadline reports that although no deals have been finalized, with Braga now on board the project has unofficially been given a 13-episode order:

Terra Nova follows a family from 100 years in the future who travel back in time 150 million years to prehistoric Earth ruled by dinosaurs. It was co-written by Craig Silverstein and British scribe Kelly Marcel, from an idea of Marcel’s. On the show, Braga joins fellow executive producers Silverstein, Marcel, Aaron Kaplan, Spielberg, Chernin, Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank and Katherine Pope. Braga landed the job on Terra Nova after meeting with the heads of Fox, 20th TV, Spielberg and Chernin on Friday where the project gathered momentum toward a series order.

In related news, EW reports that Kyle Chandler (“Friday Night Lights”) is being eyed to topline the Fox drama and the site echo’s Deadline’s sentiment that the show is pretty much locked for a 13-episode order.